The spider spirit shifted again. Zhi Zhu’s tone was low, not scornful. Listen to the Matriarch, Liuxiang. She is right in telling you to spend the time you have. To use it without wasting it on a struggle that is more about rejecting pain than from any true hope of changing the outcome.Matriarch Shie sighed. “I understand how you’re feeling. I understand how painful loss is. But I’ve done exactly what you’re doing, Liuxiang, and trust this old woman’s words when I say you will regret it for the rest of your life if you behave this way. You have to understand, Liuxiang. Every second you’re wasting now is a moment you’ll look back on a few weeks later… and hate yourself for. You know that, yes? You’d never be able to forgive yourself for wasting it, would beg for just a single moment longer with that boy. One more peaceful conversation, for a moment of laughter, for anything at all. Appreciate him while you have him. Do not waste the miracle of these days you have remaining. Do not thr

It only took me a few seconds to realize the house didn’t have a silencing formation set to it. I’d gotten so used to having Ren set those automatically. I immediately withdrew my Chi to the best of my extent, muffling the sounds within the house, because I did not want to intrude on their conversation.Even despite all that, however, Liuxiang’s sobs were loud enough for me to hear them when they started. My chest tightened in sympathy. Pain does not need words to make itself understood. My gaze fixed itself to the door, and I couldn’t tear it away.It only took a minute, before Liuxiang left the room, making my heart clench. For a second, I was worried she’d not say anything; the next second, I was worried she’d still insist on sacrificing herself, doing something, anything.Instead, she bowed. “I’m sorry, and thank you.”I could see the place on her sleeve where she had wiped her face. I could see how her eyes were red around the rims and I let out the breath I was holding.I pulled

I held the wooden spear in my hand, its weight comfortable as I looked at Zhang. His heart and mind were clearly not in it. He didn’t want a duel. But what he needed was movement, so I would provide that.We had chosen the inner yard because the ground there stayed level and packed even after the morning drills. The snow had been cleared to the edges and piled against the low wall, where it melted slowly under the steady warmth that bled from the castle stones. Someone had marked scuffs on the yard’s stones where earlier pairs had set their feet for balance drills.The militia had left two racks of practice spears near the entry. The hafts were sanded smooth and oiled to keep splinters down. The heads were blunted, wrapped in layered cloth that had been bound with lacquered twine.I spun my spear once to test balance, then settled into a simple guard. Zhang mirrored me, though his hands were a fraction too tight on the wood. He had suppressed his Chi as promised. Even so, the habit of

Elder Yan looked at his granddaughter as he processed the information she’d brought to him. He did not speak right away. His mouth pressed into a flat line, loosened, pressed again.The tea between them let off a faint thread of steam that curled and faded by the time it rose to eye level. He’d brewed it before she arrived, more from habit than expectation, measuring out the leaves with the same neat care he used when he’d written technique manuals for the sect. Now the cups sat untouched.Yan Yun’s posture was composed, but she had drawn her hands into her sleeves the way she did when she had to keep them still. She had not cried in front of him in years, not since she was a child and he had been harsher than he should have been and quicker with correction than comfort. Since their quarrels, she had learned to keep her expression smooth around him, the way she had learned to keep her footwork exact. Today, the smoothness showed strain at the edges.She had rehearsed this conversation

An awkward silence settled for a few seconds, then Elder Yan seemed to finally muster the courage to speak what he’d come here for, “I am sorry. For my arrogance, for my hopeless hubris, for all the mistakes I’ve made.”I blinked. That too, I hadn’t expected to hear. Elder Yan reforming, sure. Elder Yan making up with his granddaughter, sure. But apologizing to me?It was… unimaginable.He still had his pride as a cultivator, didn’t he? And I was someone who had led to the deaths of both of his heirs and corrupted his other heir. Even if he’d moved on, I would have expected him to think we’d inflicted equal damage on each other and let bygones be bygones—not to apologize.“I should have done many things differently,” Elder Yan admitted. “I should have taken a stricter hand with my two heirs. I should have given Yan Yun more freedom and acknowledgment, shown her I was truly proud. I should have stopped trying to marry her away for the sect’s benefit—or, as I deluded myself, for her ben